In today's Washington Post, the story of mounting infant mortality rate in Iraq as the medical system -- at one time the pride of the Middle East -- unravels under the weight of the 1990s embargo and now the war. The Post's story focuses on the tragic death of a baby who became lodged in his mother's birth canal and died when unskilled nurses (no doctor could be found) used forceps to extract him and crushed his skull.
The combination of road closures, physician kidnapping, and the stress of war and poverty are taking a signifant toll on maternal-child health in Iraq and the problem is exacerbated by the mass exodus of Iraqi physicians (some estimates say up to 50% have fled since the U.S. invasion).
Understandably, women are frequently less willing to take the risk of traveling during curfew hours to hospitals that may or may not have doctors avalable to help them deliver their babies. More women are turning to midwives to avoid hospitals altogether. Still others are scheduling elective c-sections around curfew hours.
The infant mortality rate in Iraq now stands at 48.6 per 1,000 live births -- in other words, 5% of all babies delivered die or are dead on delivery. As a point of comparison, the U.S. rate is 6.9 per 1,000 live births -- one of the industrialized world's worst rates.
For those of us totally overwhelmed by the tragedy in Iraq, learning that women and children are suffering there isn't surprising or particularly new information. But stories such as these have a way of cutting to the chase. I simply cannot imagine the sorrow of delivering a baby who should have been healthy and living, but who died almost directly because of the war. And I can't help but think I'd be ready to take up arms against my oppressor -- whether American, Sunni, or Shi'ite.
